This nonetheless picture obtained September 10, 2012, from IntelCenter reveals Ayman al-Zawahiri talking from an undisclosed location.
IntelCenter/AFP through Getty Photographs
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IntelCenter/AFP through Getty Photographs
This nonetheless picture obtained September 10, 2012, from IntelCenter reveals Ayman al-Zawahiri talking from an undisclosed location.
IntelCenter/AFP through Getty Photographs
One of many final occasions al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri was on heart stage was roughly 40 years in the past, when the worldwide media captured his rants from a cage in the back of an Egyptian courtroom.
The cameras caught him shouting in regards to the torture he and different prisoners suffered by the hands of Egyptian jailers. He began the group chanting: “We’re Muslims. We’re Muslims.”
Zawahiri’s jail time in Egypt not solely set him in opposition to the regime there, but in addition marked the start of his lifelong hatred of the U.S.
When he finally joined forces with Osama bin Laden, he handed that enmity alongside, however it ended for al-Zawahiri on Sunday native time in Afghanistan after an unmanned U.S drone fired two hellfire missiles at a secure home in Kabul, killing him.
President Biden famous Monday that al-Zawahiri was Osama bin Laden’s deputy throughout 9/11 and that he was “deeply concerned within the planning.”
“For many years he was the mastermind behind assaults in opposition to Individuals,” Biden added, noting the 2000 USS Cole assault and the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Biden additionally detailed al-Zawahiri’s position main al-Qaida since bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in 2011, together with calling on followers in current weeks to assault the U.S. and allies.
Bruce Hoffman, director of the Heart for Peace and Safety Research at Georgetown College, mentioned in 2011 that whereas al-Zawahiri had a fame for being prickly and dogmatic, he would possibly emerge as a good stronger chief than bin Laden.
“Not like bin Laden, he had the road cred at having been a dyed-in-the-wool terrorist from the time he was a youngster,” Hoffman mentioned. “OK, he isn’t as telegenic as bin Laden. He lacks bin Laden’s charisma. He would not have bin Laden’s mellifluous voice, however he nonetheless is a really highly effective determine throughout the motion.”
Bin Laden had talked about making a base for a broader Islamist motion as if it had been a mantra. He needed a corporation that did not want him to outlive. And al-Zawahiri has stored it going within the decade since bin Laden’s dying.
A model of this profile, written by Dina Temple-Raston, first appeared on NPR on Might 3, 2011.
